studies on zooplankton diversity of western ramganga river ... · the distribution, abundance,...

International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064

Index Copernicus Value (2013): 6.14 | Impact Factor (2015): 6.391

Volume 5 Issue 5, May 2016

www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY

Studies on Zooplankton Diversity of Western

Ramganga River in Almora (Uttarakhand) India

Anupama Pandey1, Hem Chandra Upadhyay

2

1, 2Department of Zoology, R. H. Govt. P.G. College Kashipur,(U.K.) India

Abstract: Zooplankton community structure and organization play a vital role in aquaculture and capture fisheries. The present paper

is devoted to the findings on group composition, community abundance and relative group abundance, species diversity, etc. of

zooplankton community in response to evolution of the river. The distribution, abundance, population, group percentage and species

diversity were studied in the river and correlated with pollution indicating water quality characteristics.

Keywords: Species Diversity, Western Ramganga River, Zooplankton

1. Introduction

Zooplankton are an important biotic component influencing

all the functional aspects of every type of aquatic ecosystems

viz. food chains, food webs, energy flow and cycling of

matter. Zooplankton constitute the second trophic level in

aquatic media and they efficiently consume the primary

production. Zooplankton are connecting link between

producers and successive levels of consumers. Zooplankton

plays an integral role and serves as bio-indicator therefore

they are a well suited tool for understanding water pollution

status. Zooplankton feeds phytoplankton, detritus, bacteria,

and other heterotrophic organisms. The rate of zooplankton

feeding varies highly seasonally and spatially among rivers.

Feeding can remove large portions of the phytoplankton at a

particular time and can cause a marked reduction in

phytoplankton population and productivity. Variations in

zooplankton community impart a limiting effect on

phytoplankton populations. Mackas, et al, (2001) found

zooplankton are excellent organisms for the study of an

aquatic ecosystem and respond quickly to climate variability

because their short life cycle. Various environmental factors

that determine the characters of water have great importance

upon the growth and abundance of zooplankton (Jose and

SanalKumar, 2012). The qualitative and quantitative

estimation of plankton have been utilized to assess the

quality of water. Generally, climatic variation, altitude

ranges associated with the alignment that determine the

altitudinal growth and variety of vegetation. Thus, this study

might also be important from the altitudinal variation

perspective.

2. Material and Methods

The present study was carried out in 45 km stretch of

Western Ramganga River at three sampling sites, namely

Gairsen (S1), Chaukhutiya (S2) and Masi (S3) in Almora

district of Uttarakhand (Fig: 1). The study area, is located

between 290 36’ N latitude and 79

0 30’ E longitude in the

Western part of Central Himalaya.

Zooplankton samples were collected by filtering 50 L of

water through plankton net with demarcating collecting tube.

All organisms were represented numerically as units per liter

of water. Three samples were counted and the average was

taken to calculate the number of organisms per liter.

n = L

)C 1,000(a

Where:

n = number of plankton per liter of original water

a = average no. of plankton in all counts in counting unit of a

ml capacity

C = volume of original concentrate in ml.

L = volume of original water filtered expressed in liter.

Diversity index: Species diversity index of biotic

communities was calculated by using Shannon-Wiener

information function which is:

, log 1

2 PiPiHS

i

and

Concentration of dominance was calculated by using

Simpson’s index which is given below:

C

s

i

Pi1

2)(

Where Hˈ is the diversity index; ln is the natural logarithm; i

is an index number for each species present in a sample; pi is

the number of individuals within a species (ni) divided by

the total number of individuals (N) present in the entire

sample.

To estimate monthly variations in zooplankton community,

the average data of all sampling stations were used as

replicates. That data finally used as monthly average value

for computation of further observations.

3. Results and Discussion

During the entire study period (i.e. Jan., 2012 to Dec., 2012),

14 zooplankton species were recorded in the collection.

Identified zooplankton species belonged to three taxonomic

groups namely Rotifera, Protozoa and Crustacea. Rotifera

was dominant group and contributed about 43% to the total

zooplankton number (Fig 2). Similar observations had been

made by some researchers such as Akin-Oriola, (2003) and

Imoobe and Adeyinka, (2010). Basinska and Kippen, (2009)

attributed that the rotifer community structure depends on

physico-chemical factors as well as biological factors like

predation or competition.The group Protozoa ranked second

in terms of percentage share of the zooplankton density with

Paper ID: NOV163608 1192





about 39% part in the community. The present investigation,

is in agreement with the observations made by (Negi and

Negi, 2010; Kanwal and Pathani, 2012; Gholap, 2014).

In addition to this 18% of share of the total zooplankton

number was of Crustacean. This group shared least

population to the total zooplankton standing crop in the

river.Poor density of Crustaceans in the river could be

attributed to high predation pressure by fishes.

In present investigation, zooplankton are abundant during

the slow water current, while the fast water current brings

about a sharp decline in their density. Similar observation

has been reported by (Pennak, 1946).

Species diversity is a unique characteristic of biological

organization at the community level.Zooplankton species

composition and diversity give an insight into the

characteristics and quality of the water.Ramesha and Sophia,

(2013) in their studies reported that a diversity index greater

than 3 indicates clean water and between 1 to 3 indicates

moderately polluted water while values less than 1 is

characteristic of heavily polluted water. The species

diversity and dominance indices of zooplankton community

for the entire study period (January, 2012 to December,

2012) are shown in figure 3. The mean Shannon-Weiner

diversity of zooplankton biocoenosis in Western Ramganga

River ranged from a minimum of 1.099 (July and August)

and a maximum of 2.482 (October) and the concentration of

dominance varied from 0.089 (October) to 0.333 (July and

August) during the entire study period figure 3.

4. Conclusion

Overall, the present research revealed that none of the

pollution indicator species of zooplankton was

characteristically present in higher number. Therefore, it can

be concluded from these results that the conditions in

Western Ramganga River system are suitable for the

development and management of aquaculture resources.

References

[1] Akin–Oriola, F.A. 2003. Zooplankton associations and

environmental factors in Ogunpa and Ona Rivers,

Nigeria. Rev. Biol. Trop, 51(2): 391– 398.

[2] Basinska, A. and Kuczynska-Kippen 2009. J. Biologia.

Biomedical and life sciences, 1100-1107.

[3] Gholap, Avinash B. 2014. Species diversity indices of

zooplankton from Sadatpur reservoir, Ahmednagar,

Maharashtra Annals of Biological Research, 5 (4): 58-

61.

[4] Imoobe, T.O.T. and Adeyinka, M.L. 2010.

Zooplankton-based assessment of the trophic state of a

tropical forest river. International Journal of Fisheries

and Aquaculture, (I.J.F.A), 2(2): 64-70.

[5] Jose, R. and Sanalkumar, M.G. 2012.Seasonal

Variations in the Zooplankton Diversity of River

Achencovil. International Journal of Scientific and

Research Publications. 2(11): 1-5.

[6] Kanwal, B.P.S. and Pathani, S.S. 2012. Plankton

diversity in some tributaries of river Suyal of Kumaun

Himalaya, International Journal of Innovations in Bio-

Sciences, 2 (3): 146-153.

[7] Mackas, D.L., Thomson, R.R. and Galbraith, M. 2001.

Changes in the zooplankton community of the British

Columbia Continental margin, 19851999, and their

Conversation with Oceanographic conditions. Can. J.

Fish. Aquat. Sci., 58: 685-702.

[8] Negi, R.K. and Negi, T. 2010. Diversity of

zooplanktons in the Hinval freshwater stream at

Shivpuri (Garhwal region), Uttarakhand. J. Env. Bio.

Sci., 24(2): 167-169.

[9] Pennak, R.W. 1946. The dynamics of fresh water

plankton populations Ecological Monographs, 16(4):

340-355.

[10] Ramesha, M.M. and Sophia, S. 2013. Species

composition and diversity of Plankton in the River Seeta

at Seetanadi, the Western Ghats, India. Advanced Bio.

Tech., 12(8): 2319-6750.

LEGENDS TO FIGURES-

Fig 1: Map showing location of selected sampling stations

on Western Ramganga River

Fig 2: Percent composition of various groups of zooplankton

in terms of density

Fig 3: Mean community abundance of zooplankton in

Western Ramganga River

Fig 4: Mean species diversity of zooplankton in Western

Ramganga River

Figure 1: Map showing location of selected sampling

stations on Western Ramganga River (Map not to scale)






Figure 2: Comparison of percent composition of various groups of zooplankton in terms of density

Figure 3: Seasonal variations in mean community abundance of zooplanktons in Western Ramganga River(vertical bars

represents standard deviation of the mean)

Figure 4: Seasonal variations in mean Shannon-Weiner diversity index and concentration of dominance of zooplankton in

Western Ramganga River


studies on zooplankton diversity of western ramganga river ... · the distribution, abundance,...

Documents